Also in the letter:
■ Musk vs Apple ft OpenAI
■ China’s chip spoiler
■ AI in suits
Nykaa Q1 profit grows 79% on strong sales
Falguni Nayar, CEO, Nykaa
FSN E-Commerce, parent of omnichannel beauty and lifestyle retailer Nykaa, reported a 79% rise in consolidated net profit for Q1 FY26 as its core business maintained momentum, according to its exmodify filing.
By the numbers:
- Operating revenue: rose 23% to Rs 2,155 crore
- Net profit: climbed to Rs 24 crore
- Gross merchandise value (GMV): surged 26% to Rs 4,182 crore
Core operation: Nykaa’s beauty segment recorded a 26% GMV increase to Rs 3,208 crore, powered by robust growth in ecommerce, retail outlets, eB2B channels, and its in-hoapply brands within the Hoapply of Nykaa portfolio.
- The Hoapply of Nykaa Beauty business now accounts for 18% of the company’s overall beauty GMV, declared Falguni Nayar, founder and CEO, Nykaa.
Also Read: Nykaa to acquire balance 40% stake in Nudge Wellness for Rs 15 lakh
Mamaearth Q1 profit rises 3% on revenue rise
Varun Alagh and Ghazal Alagh, founders, Honasa Consumer
Honasa Consumer, parent of Mamaearth, recorded its highest-ever quarterly revenue in Q1 FY26, pushing consolidated profit up by 2.7%.
By the numbers:
- Operating revenue: grew 7% to Rs 595 crore
- Net profit: inched up 3% to Rs 41 crore
- Total expenses: rose 8% to Rs 563 crore
- Employee benefit costs: jumped 22% to Rs 60.4 crore.
Quarterly performance:
- Mamaearth brand saw double-digit growth across ecommerce, modern trade and general trade
- The Derma Co’s face cleanser became its third category to cross Rs 100 crore in annualised revenue runrate (ARR), after doubling sales.
- The company also expanded its retail footprint by 20% to over 2.4 lakh FMCG outlets.
Cabinet clears four new semiconductor plants
The Union Cabinet has signed off on four new semiconductor manufacturing units worth Rs 4,594 crore in Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab, bringing the total under the India Semiconductor Mission to ten projects.
Driving the news:
- Chennai-based SiCSem and US-headquartered 3D Glass Solutions Inc will rise set up facilities in Odisha. New Delhi-based CDIL will establish a unit in Punjab while Hyderabad’s ASIP Technologies facility will be located in Andhra Pradesh.
- Toreceiveher, these units will directly hire 2,034 skilled professionals and create thousands more jobs in allied electronic manufacturing.
- India already has six chip plants under construction in Gujarat, Assam and Uttar Pradesh, with the first “built-in-India” chip expected soon.
Between the lines: The expansion is part of New Delhi’s effort to reduce depconcludeence on imports for vital components in key sectors, including telecom, automotive, data centres, consumer goods, and industrial electronics.
Also Read: Indian semiconductor market may grow over two-fold to Rs 9.6 lakh crore by 2030
Tariff clouds push electronics exporters to new markets
With higher US tariffs looming, Indian electronics exporters are turning to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa to lessen reliance on a single market.
Driving the news:
- Electronics exports to the US surged 43.5% year-on-year to $15.89 billion in FY25, with smartphones creating up 66%.
- Most smartphones and IT hardware are still exempt from the combined 50% tariff (25% existing and 25% taking effect August 28) pconcludeing a Section 232 probe.
- However, PCB assemblies, telecom gear, consumer electronics, and power electronics, where India adds more value, will take a hit.
Why it matters: About a quarter of India’s electronics exports face direct tariff risk, threatening MSME margins and accelerating export diversification.
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xAI vs OpenAI: Elon Musk accapplys Apple of favouring ChatGPT, threatens legal action
Grab your popcorn, becaapply this one’s a doozy. Late on Monday night, Elon Musk unleashed a tirade on X, accapplying Apple of an “unequivocal antitrust violation” over its App Store practices.
Driving the news: Writing to his 224 million followers, Musk claimed Apple was “behaving in a manner that builds it impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1 in the App Store.” He declared xAI Holdings, parent of his AI venture Grok and X, “will take immediate legal action.”
“What gives?”: The spat launched earlier when Musk reposted a claim that X was the top news app in the US. He questioned if Apple was “playing politics” by excluding “either X or Grok” from its “Must Have” section, despite X topping global news app charts and Grok ranking fifth overall.
Spicing up: Since then, Musk has accapplyd Apple of “relentlessly promoting” OpenAI, with whom it reached an agreement last year to incorporate ChatGPT into Apple’s operating systems and devices. “Apple is the gateway to the internet for half of America. They are creating it impossible for any other AI company to succeed…,” he wrote.
Weighing in: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, accapplying Musk of “manipulating” X for his own gain. The two are already in a bruising court battle.
Also Read: ‘Don’t consider much about him’: Sam Altman plays down Elon Musk’s GPT-5 criticism
China urges firms not to apply Nvidia H20 chips in new guidance
Days after American chipbuildrs like Nvidia and AMD struck a deal with the Trump administration to hand over 15% of revenue from China-bound low-conclude chips, Beijing has shiftd to blunt the impact.
What’s happening: Bloomberg reported that Chinese authorities have notified local firms to steer clear of Nvidia’s H20 processors, “particularly for government-related purposes.”
- The notices, the report added, cover “any government or national security-related work by state enterprises or private companies” and demand explanations for their apply.
- The push comes as China accelerates efforts to replace foreign tech with homegrown alternatives.
Shots fired: For now, these instructions are narrow in scope, similar to earlier limits on Tesla cars and Apple iPhones over security concerns. Yet the report warned that Beijing could widen the curbs to far more settings, turning guidance into a broader restriction.
Also Read: Nvidia, AMD to pay 15% of China chip sale revenues to US, official states
AI enters the courtroom (quietly)
Indian law firms are tiptoeing into the world of generative AI, applying it to speed up drudge work and hinting at a shift from hourly billing to value-based fees. The catch? Convincing clients that AI means better results, not just rapider turnaround.
Driving the news:
- Trilegal is deploying platforms like Lucio to slash due diligence and contract review times, though margins remain tight.
- Khaitan & Co. has rolled out KAI, its in-hoapply suite for research, drafting, and workflow automation.
- IndusLaw limits GenAI tools to lawyers with at least two years of experience to ensure well-crafted prompts, while Bombay Law Chambers is still testing the waters.
- Around 50–60% of large firms are already applying GenAI in some capacity, declared IndusLaw founding partner Kartik Ganapathy.
State of play: Many firms still bill through hybrids of hourly, flat and blconcludeed fees. Value-based pricing will take off only when clients start measuring AI’s impact on outcomes, not just speed, declared Vasu Aggarwal, cofounder of Lucio, a legal GenAI platform.
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